Faroe Islands Hike: Sørvágsvatn & Trælanípa

Where lake and ocean meet

12

Share:

There’s no better way to discover the Faroe Islands, than to hike. Now there are probably a million questions that you have before your visit – at least, that’s how I felt 🙂 So therefore I decided to give you a detailed insight into the best hiking tours on the Faroe Islands.

Starting with one of the highlights: The hike to the famous lookout spot of the so called “Slave’s Rock” or “Trælanípa” at the Sørvágsvatn lake. The place where lake and ocean meet!

What to expect from Sørvágsvatn & Trælanípa

This is probably one of the most iconic places on the Faroe Islands.

It has a couple of advantages as well:

It’s close to the airport on one of the main islands called Vágar.

Therefore it’s easy to reach by car (many visitors do this hike right after they arrive at the airport 😉 ).

The hike is easy and short (3km one way).

The paths are well taken care of.

Where to start

In the East of the Sørvágsvatn lake is the village “Miðvágur”. You can either navigate to the Miðvágur church and then follow the roadsigns to “Trælanípa/Bøsdalafossur” or enter the following coordinates, that will lead you directly to the parking lot.

Coordinates Parking Lot: 62°02’30.9″N 7°11’58.5″W

As you can see there are two streets leading to the parking lot (from the Northwest and the East) – it doesn’t matter which one you take. The street isn’t paved, but we made it with our small car without four-wheel drive, so you’ll be ok 😉 It’s not too adventurous!

There’s space for approximately 10 cars at this parking lot. You don’t really need an SUV to get here!

The path to the lookout spot

From here on there’s only one path alongside the Eastern shore of the lake. There’s no way to get lost 🙂 At the “end” of the path you’ll reach the cove of “Trælanípa”. There’s a bench here to rest and enjoy the views back at Sørvágsvatn lake.

From here on it’s a short, but rather steep ascend up to the famous lookout spot. But don’t worry, the ascend only takes 5 minutes or so – you’ll make it up!

We recommend to make your way up close to the cliffs – otherwise you might miss the spot with the best perspective. It’s not directly at the top, but about two thirds in. There will be a muddy patch without any grass directly at the cliff – then you know you found it.

When the waves crush against the cliffs and seagulls float around you – you almost made it!

The lookout spot: Where lake and ocean meet

Once you arrived at THE SPOT there’s absolutely no way to describe the feeling. This perspective is simply breathtaking! It really looks like the lake would sit atop of the ocean, when in reality the water levels are just slightly elevated.

Be aware that you might not be alone here to enjoy this. We went in October (off season) and still met a couple of folks filming up here). It’s best to plan this for early in the morning or late in the afternoon. We went in the afternoon and stayed until shortly before sunset and got some incredible light!

This is the view of Bøsdalafossur waterfall – where the Sørvágsvatn lake actually meets the Atlantic Ocean. As you can see the water levels aren’t so different after all!

On the way back make sure to either ascend the cliff on the opposite side of Slave’s Rock or make your way further alongside the coast to the waterfall of Bøsdalafossur.

This is the view from the other side of Trælanípa – if you look closely you can spot Raffael up there.

Today it’s quite unimaginable that they used to throw slaves down this cliff…

What to wear

You’ll cross some tiny trickles or runlets here and there. Depending on the weather (especially the days before your hike) this might be muddy and a little slippery. So make sure to wear ankle-high boots with a grippy sole.

This was our attire for most of the hikes we did on the Faroe Islands (in October).

In general it’s advisable to wear layers – knitwear, breathable under layers and a raincoat to top it off. The weather changes constantly. We had everything from rain to sunshine during this 2 hour hike.

By the way: Locals tell you it’s a 1-1,5 hour hike, but it really depends on how many photo stops you plan to make. We took a little longer, but also took a couple of hundred photos along the way 😉

Really awesome pictures dear Marion! The one with Raffael on top of the cliff is just….WOW! It makes you realize how small we are in this big big world we’re leaving in… Shocking to hear about what they used to do with slaves on that spot… Fortunately we are living in a different era now (at least we do). Thanks for sharing the practical details as well. The Faroe islands are certainly on my whishlist! Have a great weekend! Simone @simone_wit

Hey Marion, thank you for such a detailed and amazing post! When did you take these pictures by the way? I’m going to Faroe Islands for my wedding photoshoot in November and was wondering if it would look as beautiful as your pictures!

Hello Jun He, thanks so much for your feedback and yes, you’ll love it there! I took these photos last year in October, so you might have a bit colder temperatures in November (and if you’re lucky a bit of snow on the mountain tops) 🙂 All the best for your photoshoot! Cheers Marion

[…] close enough to Vágar with the airport (45 minute drive from Tórshavn) and also the incredible Sørvágsvatn lake and the Mulafossur Waterfall. These are the two main highlights of Vágar, which you won’t […]

[…] to visit the Faroe Islands had come from an art exhibition. A large poster-sized photograph of Sørvágsvatn lake and Bøsdalafossur in an exhibition in Russia. The photo showed a lake hanging above a cliff, […]

I don’t speak Dutch, but if my translation is correct, then you had to pay 200 DKK to enter the hiking trail? That’s new I guess (or our visit in October was just out of season and therefore we didn’t have to pay the entrance fee). Given the usage of that trail and how much work it must be to keep it in shape I do understand that they’ll ask for some money though. Yet I agree that 200DKK is a bit much, so I understand that you’re annoyed by that! Hope you still enjoyed your trip to the Faroe Islands, it’s a wonderful place! Cheers Marion